Blogs - Elizabeth Howell

When you are responsible for the care of someone else, be they canine, equine or human, there are times when you inevitably fail them. If you are critical in your self-assessment of this care, you no doubt can find fault frequently.

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Take a big deep breath, and tell the girl that my mom did the same thing to me, sending me to school when my 7-year-old appendix was trying to leap forth from my body. I got a good couple of years of mom-guilt out of it, plus a cool scar. :)

When I was about 12, my horse and I had an altercation with a barbed-wire fence while on a trail ride. The horse and I both ended up with nasty-looking, but non-life-threatening wounds. My mom had me out there taking care of the horse while she madly checked the vet records to make sure that he was up on his tetanus. It wasn't until we were driving home that it occurred to her that perhaps her daughter could also use a tetanus shot

It’s been a busy month of business travel, which has taken me away from visiting with all of you—I hate it when that happens! On the horse side of life, we had our Vermont Hunter Jumper annual awards banquet last month. It gave us a good excuse to get dressed up in the middle of the winter and celebrate the 2010 horse show season.

Greetings sports fans from the frozen tundra that is Vermont. I continue to hibernate, coffee cup in hand, looking out the window, thinking about going to the barn to watch the girl ride, but it’s really cold!

The girl continues to put in long hours at the barn, ever the faithful and committed young horseperson. I shamefully admit that over the past several weeks, I have only done drive-bys—picking the girl up at the end of the day, not even getting out of the car. The only real barn time I’ve put in is my regular Saturday afternoon barn chore shift.

The holidays are over and we’re settling in for our remaining five months of winter. As I read about Lauren’s seasonal relocation to Florida, I assessed my own state of mind and find that I am (surprisingly) OK. There will be no trip to Ocala this year. There are no business trips on the horizon to warm weather locales. It’s just winter as far as the eye can see. It’s cool. I can handle it. Just check on me every couple of weeks, OK?

‘Tis the time of year when people give you a gift, and you don’t have one to give to them. When you receive a pink fuzzy sweater that you’d like to exchange. And perhaps there’s a coffee maker, a box of chocolates or a bottle of wine you’re thinking of regifting.

How’s a polite barn girl to handle these situations? It’s also the time of year when we want to thank the folks who work hard all year to care for our beasts—the barn workers, the trainer, the farrier, the vet. What’s an appropriate gift?

From May through October, I kept a kid and horse entirely presentable and A-rated horse show ready. I dry cleaned show coats, I hand-washed Essex Collection shirts, I removed stains from Tailored Sportsman breeches. I found a hand-me-down pair of ancient tall boots and taught my kid how to polish and nurse them through the season.

Question: There’s a person in our barn who is constantly borrowing things from everyone else—polo wraps, boots, bits, spurs, stirrups, she even used someone else’s saddle for the entire show season. We all know it’s expensive to ride, and you can’t always afford to buy everything your horse needs. And I don’t mind lending things out once in a while. But this chronic lending seems to be a solution rather than a stop-gap measure. In my opinion, if you can’t afford to be in the sport, get out. Harsh, I know.

How many of you have Halloween plans that involve horses? And costumes? Come on…fess up! How many of you have spent time and money this month making or buying a Halloween costume for a horse? You can’t hide it from me. I made a tutu last year for a Connemara. It doesn’t get more embarrassing than that.